Sound Tigers to have Hamonic for lockout duration

Michael Fornabaio

Updated 7:18 pm, Sunday, September 16, 2012

As of Sunday morning, the NHL shut down. The owners and the NHL Players Association didn't reach a new collective bargaining agreement, and the owners locked the players out.

Travis Hamonic, who has established himself as an NHL defenseman in 135 games the past two years, got a call from the New York Islanders before that happened. He has a place to play. The Islanders sent him to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers on Friday, making him eligible to play in the AHL for as long as the lockout lasts.

"It's kind of hard when it's unknown how long it's going to be," said Hamonic, 22, who hadn't been back to the AHL since the Islanders called him up 19 games into his rookie season.

"Probably the big thing on my end and the big thing on the Islanders' end is for me to go down and obviously be a leader. I want to establish myself as a leader at the NHL level."

Several of his Bridgeport teammates are on target to join him in the NHL in short order, some possibly as soon as the lockout ends.

"It's a chance to get to know those players on and off the ice," Hamonic said. "With that, hopefully I can carry it over in some sort of leadership sense."

The Sound Tigers begin their 12th season Oct. 12 in Hartford against the Connecticut Whale, then play their home opener the next night against Providence.

Training camp opens Sept. 28 in Syosset, N.Y., and Hamonic plans to head to Long Island a few days earlier to begin a year that could end back in Long Island or could end in Bridgeport.

The NHL lost the entire 2004-05 season to an owners lockout. That year, Bridgeport had its best average attendance in 11 seasons, 5,403.

That includes two games in February and March that were moved to Long Island in front of crowds of over 10,000, but even taking those games out, 38 games at the then-Arena at Harbor Yard averaged 4,975 fans.

The team's next-highest atttendance was last year's, 4,875, as the Sound Tigers won their first division title in a decade.

Youngsters like Casey Cizikas, David Ullstrom, Calvin de Haan, Aaron Ness and Matt Donovan played key roles. They're back, at least to start the season, among 24 players assigned to the team from New York; three others have AHL contracts.

Meanwhile, Hamonic will stay fresh through the league's third lockout in 18 years.